Backyard baths

We took baths in a foot tub that was a little smaller than this one.

In the early 1950s, we took baths in our backyard at our house near Benson. The tub was mainly used to put clothes in when they were washed in a wash pot outside. We didn't have a bathroom or running water inside the house. Water was drawn from a well in the backyard. The water was heated by the sun or on a wood stove. We used homemade soap.

The picture shows a clean dirt yard with no grass or weeds. We kept them chopped with a hoe and swept with a yard broom made from reeds growing in the woods or on a hedge row. In the background is a cornfield that my Papa farmed.